During the course of a long career, Malcolm Arnold developed a reputation as a composer of classical music and film scores with a strong current of humor, but during the dark days of World War II, he struggled with tragedy. In 1941, as war raged in Europe, Arnold’s brother Philip,...

On May 7, 1783, Mozart got around to writing from Vienna to his father in Salzburg a letter in which he introduced the man who would collaborate with him on some of the greatest operas ever written. I have looked at a least a hundre d libretti or more, but...

The JACK Quartet on Friday will perform the premiere of University of Wisconsin-Madison-based composer Laura Schwendinger’s "Creature Quartet ." "Creature Quartet" consists of four larger movements that are framed by smaller movements, each one an ode to an extinct, endangered or mythical creature. The premiere will be accompanied by animated...

In his memoirs librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte takes credit for using tact to bring about the debut of Mozart’s masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro . [Mozart] asked me how hard it would be for me to make an opera of a comedy by Beaumarchais– The Marriage of Figaro. I liked...

In the spring of 1799, Domenico Dragonetti was on his way back to London after visiting his hometown, Venice. He stopped in Vienna, where he went to meet Beethoven. A mutual friend wrote a note to Dragonetti, saying, “tomorrow morning at eight o’clock precisely, go to Prince Lichnowsky’s. You will...

No one doubted that Domenico Dragonetti was one of the greatest bass players the world had ever seen. There was some disagreement, however, as to whether he was a true eccentric or just a performer with a sense of promotion and a highly developed sense of humor. Dragonetti left his...

It began the way many love stories have begun ever since young men began giving music lessons to young women. In 1910, a wealthy St. Petersburg family, the Meshcherkys, welcomed nineteen-year-old Sergei Prokofiev into their musical gatherings as an alternative to the straight-laced young men in uniform who were prospective...

In 1904, when cellist Pablo Casals undertook his first American tour, he had to rely upon a manager to keep track of his money. The manager told Casals that he could get bigger fees if he would wear a hairpiece. Casals had no interest in that kind of superficiality, and...

Conductor Theodore Thomas wielded the baton over a massive music festival that took place in New York in May 1880, and the size of the ensemble required him to be alert with his eyes as well as his ears. The Philharmonic Orchestra was the largest, and in his opinion, the...

At the age of twenty-five, Nicholas Slonimsky found out that playing the piano could save his life. As the Russian Revolution became increasingly deadly, he became determined to emigrate to Paris. The only way to Europe was through British-occupied Constantinople, and, on the boat from Yalta, he was heartened to...

His career and his family relationships were bumpy; how could his love life be any different? During his courtship of Constanze Weber, Mozart hit plenty of rough spots. He reacted to one of them in a fervent letter he wrote to Constanze on April 29, 1781: In spite of all...

Thanks to a decree from the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Soviet music took some hard knocks in 1948. Four major composers were accused of writing “formalistic” music that didn’t serve the needs of the people, the result being that their music was blacklisted from performance. The four were...

After being ruined by competition with Opera for the Nobility, a company founded by the unruly Frederick, Prince of Wales, Handel had finally begun to reverse his losses with his oratorio Alexander’s Feast , which had been a great success of 1736. Frederick’s company had brought in celebrated singers, mostly...

Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II and heir to the British throne, was so at odds with his father that he would do whatever he could to oppose him. Caught in the crush between father and son was the country’s greatest composer, George Frederick Handel. Frederick didn’t confine...

When it came to criticism, Felix Mendelssohn could take it or dish it out. In April 1834 he wrote from Düsseldorf to his friend Ignaz Moscheles, who had been rehearsing Mendelssohn’s Fair Melusina Overture for an upcoming performance. I agree completely with what you say about Berlioz’ Overture Les Francs...

Having heard the news of Abraham Lincoln’s death, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and some of his fellow passengers en route to San Francisco came to terms with the loss. He wrote in his journal on April 24, 1865: We are to have a meeting on board to give official expression to...